Sexuality: A Very Short Introduction 1st Edition

very pretty and almost new.

Well, unless you have very well educated friends who are very aware and quite conscious of their own political sexuality.It does what is says on the tin.Very well written.(and very well read on the audio version)Recommended, particularly audio version for language learners,Due in great part to it's interesting deconstruction of Western sexuality, and culture.and sexual politics as a function of culture.But then again, I can't spell recommend properly. Oh!(Ok so who's this Foccault guy? ♫ Cloud-busting Daddy. ☼rgone anybody?I love the occasional overfocus on the bizzare).But ideal from a political standpoint.Very useful background for anyone researching (Gay/Women/World) rights, freedom of ?' etc.Will be trying the 'politics' one next. Two thumbs up ;;

An excellent work and can be used as a reference

This is just a review of the Kindle e-book quality, not the book itself. The chapter headings are wrong, paragraphs are broken in the middle and don't flow together properly, etc. In short, no human bothered to double check that this was done correctly or not.

I've been looking for a one-volume text on the topic of sexuality that would include all aspects of this human phenomenon. OKAY, a tall order, maybe an impossibility. This book takes pretty much for granted the social-construction perspective and relies heavily on the work of Michel Foucault. Among the many debates in the field of sexuality, the one that most intrigues me is the biology versus culture debate. Is gender inborn or culturally determined? Or a choice? Is sexual orientation something you're "born with" (as Lady Gaga would have it) or simply a historico-cultural phenomenon? It should be obvious that the truth is not at one pole of these binaries. Some of us certainly experience our sexuality as pretty much fixed from a very, very early age, and others seem to be able to shed identities almost at will. But a book on "sexuality" would give some space to essentialists, those, for example, who search for an explanation for hetero-and homo-sexual tendencies in brain chemistry or in events that occur in the womb, as well as those who emphasize culture. The author brings up the famous speech of Aristophanes in the Plato's Symposium, where he rather baldly and boldly posits the existence of people who yearn for the opposite sex, the same sex, or both, as being pretty much part of human nature. But our author does this to point out that Aristophanes is a comic writer and Plato was probably having some fun. This is pretty much typical of her approach, I'm afraid.Of course, the cultural explanation has much to recommend it--I just wish the author had been a bit less biased in its direction.The book has a European feel to it (the spelling is British rather than American), and thus privileges at least a bit, the European discussion rather than that in the U.S.A. Again, nothing wrong with this, but you might want to be aware of it.Finally, the book would be up to date (copyright 2008, obviously written earlier) in almost any other subject, but the rise of the internet in the last five years has been spectacular, as has the amazing progress of gay rights around the world. In general, the author privileges the idea that marriage is something LGBT people are not, or should not be interested in, since it's a bourgeois institution that can't handle the freedom and flexibility afforded by cultural change. Well, maybe, but a lot of LGBT people seem to have gotten on that bandwagon as well as on the "gays in the military" bandwagon without whimpering.So I"m still looking for the perfect book on this subject.

Apparently human sexuality ended with the Greeks only to resume in the 1960s.While the book is nicely written, its preoccupation with certain post modern themes and its distorting focus on man-boy sex in a section on homosexuality leave the reader wondering where the editor was.

Had to get this for class, ended up liking the book.

I can't recommend this title highly enough. Mottier manages - in relatively few pages - to cover a vast amount of territory. I've read a great deal about sexuality and I have to say that this little tome is one of the best. Clear, jargon-free, and clearly structured: she guides the reader through some tricky terrain with great deftness and clarity. I shall be referring to this and quoting from it in my own writing. If you are interested in this area I would heartily recommend this as an addition to your library: she manages to educate and inform at a level roughly equivalent to master's without excluding an undergrad/general audience.

Very well written and researched. Want to know why sexuality is a social construct? Read this book. Also, you are bound to learn a new word or two. The study of sexuality is rich in terminology!

An excellent summary of the history of human attitude toward sex throughout the different eras from ancient Greece to our days

Stunning work that gets to the heart of politics and sexuality, a real eye opener, particularly in relation to Eugenics (which I had no idea was going on for as long as it had been) and the feminism movement. Although it strays (quite significantly at times) from the topic I was most hoping to explore with this book it remains a fascinating book and I recommend it for anyone interested in the subject.